csa and income support urgent help

hi please can anyone help i am currently on income support,my ex husband hasnt paid in five years.csa have been a right pain last week they sent a letter saying there was backdated money owed from my ex 500 pounds.they have paid this in my bank account but what are the implications of this will i have to tell income support will they stop my income support this payment was for arrears but i dont think i will be able to keep it.my ex is supposed to give me 320 a month but if i take the 320 he might not pay then im taken of income support and will struggled badly.thanks

im not sure about your arears payment but i know at the moment yu have to declare anything over £20 aweek in maintanence payments as anything above that is counted as income and yes it would affect your is

csa and is

hi helen thanks for that its the arears thats confusing i dont know what csa are doing for five years ive had nothing now there paying all sorts in my account i will have to tell is or i could get done for fraud couldnt i

Phone them up and tell them you've just been paid arrears. You were entitled to £10 a week for the last 5 years anyway, assuming you were on IS for the whole of that time. It'll be interesting to see what they do/how they work it out. Technically once they've paid off the £10 a week arrears that they owe you any extra is then owed to the DWP which should be paid back. Can you let me know how it works out. Thanks.

Yep if you have had nothing up to Oct 28th( when the rules changes) last year when you should have had the first 10 per week the arrears are yours and should not affect your IS.
You would have been entitled to the 10 so therefore getting it in one lump payment shouldnt make a difference as CSA will pay IS any money owing to them for that period too.
HTH
Kim

i'm having a similar problem to you. i know in theory what should happen now after so long but no-one at the csa or income support can give me a definative answer to any of my questions. i'm terrified of spending any of my arrears in case they want to take it back later.
i don't see what was wrong with the old system. you recieved your weekly allowance (now £20) from csa and the dwp were paid the rest, no probs. now you recieve all the money and whats over and above the allowance gets deducted off your income support.
the overall results would be the same if it weren't for the complete incompitance of the csa, the totally random payments and the constent job centre appointments attended to tell them what you've recieved this month/week.
i think the government is trying to make things as hard as possible so that mothers will leave their children and go to work. when you're working any maintainence is now not taken into consideration when calculating tax credits etc.

csa payments

Ring the Csa and tell them you are on income support and you want your payments on a regular basis, Provided they are getting it from your ex regular like a d/d or standing order there is no reason they cant do this. When I was working my payments were all irregular somtimes none then 2 at once when i went on to benefits i rang them and complained it was sorted straight away and is now paid like clockwork...if you have no joy try speaking to your loneparent adviser to see if she/he will send them an email.

The CSA are still responsible for collecting and enforcing child support and will be until the "Gross Income Scheme" is introduced in 2011. Existing CSA customers after this date will then be assisted to make an application to the new CMEC scheme or to arrange maintenece via private agreement. The process is expected to take three years.

I had this for my eldest daughter. Her dad owed me a years worth and it was backdated. i was advised to tell IS but when i spoke to the guy he was really honest and said that if i didnt tell them they wouldnt notice.... at first was going to still tell them but every time i tried to i had the same response so just kept it in end. this was 2 years ago and nothing happened

re replies csa

thanks very much to you for all your help i still havnt done anything about this as keep getting different answers every time i phone income support am worried they will take me off income support if they find out about the arrears thanks yvonne.[smilie=

Hi, i know i'm a few months behind, but as of this morning i'm in the same predicament, i just got paid a £300 lump sum i didnt know i was getting from the csa, my ex hasnt paid since august last year, can anyone help me out as to what i do? i'm off to draw the money out this morning and put it into my sons account so it's safe and i cant spend it, i want it, its owed to my son, we've struggled for a year now without any support of the sperm donor, at the same time i dont want to get into trouble!! Has anyone tried to sort theirs out...help!

hi please can anyone help i am currently on income support,my ex husband hasnt paid in five years.csa have been a right pain last week they sent a letter saying there was backdated money owed from my ex 500 pounds.they have paid this in my bank account but what are the implications of this will i have to tell income support will they stop my income support this payment was for arrears but i dont think i will be able to keep it.my ex is supposed to give me 320 a month but if i take the 320 he might not pay then im taken of income support and will struggled badly.thanks

hi there no u dunt av to declaire it from april this year u can keep any money csa issues without it affecting ur benefits x